Tales of the Storm: Nightmare
by Lizardbeth J
Summary: Frigga comforts a young Loki.


**Note: **This short story (written for Mother's Day), is related to my series "Understanding the Storm" but can stand alone. It is **not **meant to comply with any young!Loki comics canon.

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Returning to her chambers from the feast hall to change her gown and loosen her hair, Frigga heard a soft sound of muffled distress.

She checked Thor's room, but of course he was sleeping soundly, and entered on light feet to Loki's bed chamber which was nearest her own.

He was still so small, too big for a cradle, but swamped by the size of the bed. She watched him a moment in the dim purplish light streaming in through his window. His black hair was in messy disarray on his pillow, his coltish arms and legs tucked up against his thin frame, short for his age.

_Tiny for his true stature_, a distant part of her mind reminded her, but she pushed it aside. It had been years since she had seen his true skin, and it was better to not remember.

Loki, unlike Thor, had frequent nightmares. When he would speak of them, she wondered sometimes if his dreams were prophetic - there seemed little slivers of something true in his images - but mostly they were simply childish terrors of monsters and being lost.

He tossed in his bed, twisting his body, and made soft sounds in his throat.

She sat beside him on his bed and with a gentle hand, smoothed his hair back from his face. Sometimes she could soothe him back to deeper sleep without waking him, but not so this time, as his eyes shot open, wide and fearful.

"Hush, little one," she murmured, "it was a dream." She didn't stop with her touch. "Only a dream. There is nothing to fear. You are safe at home in your bed."

"_Amma?"_ His little piping voice was shaking as if he wasn't sure it was her.

"Of course, little love. Come here." She coaxed him upright and into her arms, nestled into her chest, where she could feel his heart beating too fast, like a small bird's. "Would you like to go to the garden?" He nodded and sniffled, rubbing his nose on the sleeve of her gown.

She stood up. "Then we shall." He was a little too big now to carry without letting his legs go around her waist, but he was still close enough to a baby to make her heart swell as she carried him from his room, head on her shoulder. The others - even Odin - said she should let the staff care for him, saying she spent less time with Thor. But of course she and Thor had been together nearly all the time during his infancy when they had been in hiding during the war, and also it was just a fact that he needed her less now as a bigger child. Thor slept soundly, when he would sleep at all, and by temperament was already his father's child - boisterous and fearless, and a bit combative.

But Loki was a fussy eater and sleeper; he grew slowly and tired quickly, and didn't like to be far from her.

In the garden, by the light of the stars and the soft glow of the moon lilies, she seated herself on the bench. Loki turned around on her lap, letting her keep one arm around him as they looked out at the darting small lights of the fireflies.

After a little while he relaxed back into her, and she asked. "Can you tell me what it was about?"

"I was falling," he whispered, "and falling and falling and falling, and it was so dark." He started to tremble again and she tightened her grip with one arm around him and with the other hand smoothed his hair.

"It was a dream," she soothed. He nodded understanding, but he was still quivering. "Look all around you, Loki. It seems very dark here, does it not? And yet there is light. There is always light, little one, if you look for it."

"You promise?" he asked, twisting to look at her. The sight of his face, especially his big eyes, always could cut straight to her heart, making room for someone so many others would say she should not love at all.

She kissed his forehead. "I promise. Now settle down. You need your sleep."

Idly she smoothed his hair as they watched the distant lights and let the murmur and buzz of the night insects and the distant murmurs of the city soothe them both.

Soon Loki's head tilted against her chin and his breathing deepened into sleep. Frigga didn't move for a time, enjoying her garden and the feel of the little body sleeping against her, knowing he would soon be too big to let her comfort him in this way.

She hummed and kissed his hair, and she hoped he wouldn't grow too fast.

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(and yes the next 'Understanding the Storm' is being written and is quite long).


End file.
